Moldovan officials have asked the IMF for loan assistance, but the international body is reviewing the Eastern European nation’s broken financial system before approval, according to Radio Free Europe.
The government has contended with various corruption scandals, including $1 billion missing from the banking sector. Moldovan authorities will meet with International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials until the end of this week.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its most recent African Economic Outlook today. In it, the OECD warned that although Africa has been urbanizing at an unprecedented rate, it must take steps to ensure that that process remains sustainable or it could lead to enormous economic collapses.
In a plea to British voters to vote to stay in the group, many world leaders are citing the risks of Britain leaving the European Union. Most recently, Bank of Japan Chief Haruhiko Kuroda warned that Britain leaving the EU would have a serious impact on the world’s economy and that it would hurt Japan. “This could be potentially quite serious. If Brexit is agreed, it would have a significant and serious impact on the global economy,” he said at the most recent G7 meeting in Japan.
President Michelle Bachelet’s state-of-the-union speech was interrupted over the weekend as protesters tossed bombs and damaged property, according to BBC. The public is in an uproar over the government’s failure to fix the economy, including a corruption scandal tarnishing Bachelet’s legacy. One security guard was killed during the violence.
Diseases such as Ebola, Zika, and AIDS have long sent shivers down the spines of people around the world thanks to their virulence and capacity for contamination. Many popular television shows and movies have pondered the potential social consequences of such an outbreak, but few think about the potential financial consequences of these illnesses.
Sweden is renowned for its incredible social system. This has drawn record numbers of refugees seeking asylum to the Scandinavian nation. In 2015, 163,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, more than in any other member nation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2013 and 2014, another 100,000 came across the country’s borders.
President Filipe Nyusi is pivoting to China for financial aid after rejection from the European Union, according to Deutsche Welle. Nyusi contends with a stagnant economy suffering from low commodity prices, and the public is growing increasingly frustrated as living costs and lacking opportunities make life harder. Mozambique has been embroiled in several major scandals, stoking widespread distrust among donors and Western nations.
The Federal Reserve dominated economic news this week, as the central bank prepared America for higher borrowing costs. Citing economic strength despite just 0.5% GDP growth in the first quarter of 2016, the Federal Reserve reiterated its view that June would be an appropriate month to increase its Federal funds rate target. This rate influences the interest rates on many forms of debt, from U.S. Treasuries to mortgages.
Five years ago, the World Bank decided to freeze lending to Cambodia in protest of the government’s practice of forced evictions for public projects. The World Bank may vote this week to remove this ban, effectively allowing it to resume lending money to the nation to continue a project for landless families that has experienced major funding shortages.
Many Salvadorians are fleeing the country in droves as gang violence spins out of control, according to Reuters. El Salvador has over 70,000 gangs that regularly engage in turf wars, armed conflicts with police, and extortion schemes. El Salvador is officially the murder capital of the world due to gang prominence.
